 Welcome back. Now the holiday season may be some time away but luggage and backpack major American Tourist doesn't want you to wait that long. They've introduced this whole new range of trendy backpacks and the brand's ad campaign now says Tourist you're every day. This is an 82 year old brand that we're talking about. American Tourist was acquired by Samsonite in the year 1994. It is one of the world's largest luggage makers. The backpack range now being pegged as one of the fastest growing categories in India among young professionals and college students. So let's find out how the brand is hoping to engage with its target audience with this latest offering of theirs. Anushree Tainwala is Executive Director of Marketing at Samsonite South Asia. She's joining us on this leg of the show. Great to have you with us Anushree. If you can start off by telling us about the sort behind this latest campaign that you've launched for American Tourist. Tourist you're every day. How did it come about? American Tourist is very well known in India today as a travel luggage brand. So it's synonymous with travel. So the idea was that we also wanted to remind our consumers that American Tourist is not just about traveling about leaving your city going for a holiday. It's also about your everyday journey. So American Tourist is also your companion in your everyday journey not just in your journey out of town. So that is why we decided to remind our consumers that American Tourist is just part of your everyday and the way we are part of your everyday. Alright so tell us what the marketing mix is looking like for this campaign. Anushree which medium is your focus for your ad spends this time? The focus is on television but we're also investing a substantial amount of money on the digital medium this time and along with that we're also doing cinema and some activation. Of course Anushree one can't overstate the power of digital media. So if you can give us a sense of the different initiatives you've launched in this space? The general digital is very relevant today especially to an American who is a consumer because bad consumer is interacting with brands on the digital platform. Especially the bad facts because the youth are of course more familiar with the digital medium they're more willing to participate and make it a two way conversation not just about the brand pumping in content to the consumers. There we have a campaign is about making everyday journey about travelling in your own city about experiencing your own city. So just to bring this out we're doing a bunch of interesting digital ideas where we talk to our brands on the digital platform and then encourage them or show them how to to restore your everyday offline as well. And along with that we're also connecting with our consumers in a lot of malls. So we've set up activation for within malls where we get the highest traffic of consumers to talk to them about the idea, show them how to live the idea that we're advertising. So if one were to zero in on the profile of an average American tourist customer how would you go about it? How would you define this person? An average American tourist customer, average American tourist backpack customer especially is a very, is the average Joe of India today. He's someone who was probably around 25 to 30 years of age, maybe even younger. Maybe he's in his first job right out of college. He takes a bike to work when he goes to work. He is someone who is increasingly looking to travel for short weekend trips, you know, just get away from the city. He wants to try out new restaurants, try out the new things in his city but many times it just ends up being a wish rather than a reality. So basically just your average Joe, he's our consumer. And you know, Samsonite is primarily considered a product that attracts the affluent urban customer. Tell us if there are plans to widen this target audience, if you'd like to introduce some lower cost alternatives that's something similar to what Project Papu had aimed at doing in the year 2013. Samsonite know that is going to continue being a brand for the premium consumer who's looking for a little bit something more when it comes to design and aesthetics. But in our group portfolio we have a large number of brands, each one addressing a different type of audience. So yes, we have launched a new brand called Chameleon which is addressing a wider audience than what even an American twister addresses today. Going into the smaller towns, the B and C class towns as well. Well I remember that Samsonite had gone beyond the metros with Project Papu but unfortunately it didn't generate the kind of response you'd want in the market. A year later I understand that Samsonite went back to targeting the premium segments. I want to understand what you account this to if you think the unorganized players have an upper hand when you talk about the low cost category. The unorganized players do have an upper hand but when we started Project Papu the idea was not just to go after the unorganized players. There are also organized players that exist in that market today. In fact they not only exist but they get their bread and butter from a market that we do not address with an American twister today. So I think the lack of buzz there was more about we were trying to do it within American twister itself. And American twister today is not that brand. It is a mall for that consumer from a smaller town. It is still a premium brand and we found it difficult to kind of do both with it to be the mass brand and to be the lower than mass brand. So we are relaunching we have just relaunched Project Papu with a new brand called Chameleon. It's a brand that we've launched internationally in many other markets and it's been it's worked really well there. So just as of January this year we've launched the brand in India as well and the first responses have been very encouraging. So I think we can finally get the buzz we were hoping to get with Project Papu. What's the approach of the brand then now when you talk about the tier two, the tier three markets. How different is the strategy there to reach out to rural consumers as opposed to your urban clientele? Our strategy is quite different. Our products are very different because what an urban consumer is looking for is very different from what a rural consumer is looking for today. So our product strategies are completely different and also the way we reach out to them is different. So for us out of home plays a really big role in reaching out to a rural consumer today because it's a cost effective medium in a smaller city as well. Plus it's something that becomes a talk of the town. TV becomes harder to reach out to a rural consumer because I mean to reach out to both because it's an expensive medium at the end of the day. Of course now the latest buzz is about GPS enabled luggage. Samsung has recently tied up with Samsung to develop the smart luggage. Luggage that can be enabled with a GPS chip and this to obviously help travelers keep a check on the whereabouts where this luggage goes because sometimes it's lost and you don't know how to track it. But now tell us about this plan that you have by when can we expect it to roll out and stand at Ramesh Danbala, your CEO believes. This is going to be the next big thing for the brand. Tell us more. Smart luggage is of course the new thing everyone's been talking about. You know just integrating technology disrupting the way we use luggage or the way luggage exists today. So unfortunately we cannot disclose anything else at the moment about it. But yes we are working on smart luggage as well and hopefully we get a commercially viable product out there soon. There are a lot of brands that have come after doing smart luggage but trying to make it smart in a way that's actually usable by a consumer benefits him and makes his life easier. And at the same time at a price that is affordable is where we're trying to find that balance. Right so tell us what the market share is of the brand today and who you'd consider as the biggest competitor in the Indian market. So it's a hard number to pinpoint but in the organized player we'd say around the 35 to 40% for all our brands put together. So we're sure you put a strategy in place for the brand to counter VIP, your closest rival in terms of market share. If you can lay out how you're taking them on. The main brands of VIP today are VIP and SkyBug which sort of operate in the mass segment which is where American Tourist operates today as well. And I think American Tourist is providing an Indian consumer today an international premium brand at an affordable price which is how we compete with VIP and SkyBug. And along with that the other part of their sale comes from lower and brand Alfa and Aristocrat which we're hoping to target now with our new brand communion. Alright so Anushree when you zero in on the USP of Samsonite the kind of categories that contribute to a bigger percentage of your sales what would you put it down to? For the brand Samsonite we have almost 50% of our sales coming from non-luggage items. That's business cases, backpack, duffel bags, gym bags you know that kind of thing and 50% coming from luggage. And when it comes to USP I think Samsonite today is the only truly international brand out there. We are present in over 180 countries. There's no other brand in the world that can make that claim that is not from our family. So to be able to offer a consumer something that is truly unique that is something that is aesthetically beautiful because it's not just about functionality when it comes to Samsonite. It's also about those little touches which makes the brand standard which makes the product standard. Someone who appreciates those finer qualities, finer touches like a piece of art almost in the form of luggage. And because of our scale, because of our size that is something we can bring to our consumer at a price at which they're more than happy to pay. So that is definitely Samsonite's USP. Going ahead can we expect any new product launches this year? I have a lot of new products coming up but for American Western particularly looking at getting different ranges which cater to these different personalities of a customer. So it's not just about having the one product that fits every type of consumer anymore. So for example we've launched a range of toss bags which is a range of bags for kids two years and younger. We've launched a range of bags for school children which is designed specifically for an Indian school student. Like a compartment for your tiffin box and a compartment for your pencil case and it has to be at least big enough to fit an art book inside. So just very, very nuanced fitting the needs of a specific set of consumers. In the same way we've also launched a woman's collection. So it's something about where we focus more on colors, the kind of fabrics we're looking at are more silky, more casual looking in a way, not like structured and bulky looking. So yeah, it's an exciting time for us as well. We're not going to let you go without sharing a marketing tip for us as well. Anushree? For me I think what I have learned sometimes the hard way is that you are not the consumer necessarily. So sometimes marketeers fall into the trap of making products for themselves. So they think that the consumers will like it because I like it. So that has been something that I've really learned that you have to go outside to offer your consumer, not just one consumer, a whole bunch of representative consumers to get their real feedback on your products or your ideas.